Weakening ice shelf has caused crucial Antarctic glacier to accelerate
The flow of ice at Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica has sped up dramatically due to the disintegration of the ice shelf in front of it, and this could lead to faster sea level rise ⌘ Read more

Why exercise isn’t much help if you are trying to lose weight
When we exercise more, our bodies may compensate by using less energy for other things – especially if we eat less too ⌘ Read more

Synchronised volcanic eruptions on Io hint at a spongy interior
Five volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io erupted simultaneously, spewing a mind-boggling amount of lava onto the surface and giving us clues to what may lie underneath ⌘ Read more

Moving inductions to early morning could shorten labour by 6 hours
By matching uterine contractions up with the body’s natural circadian rhythms, inducing labour in the early morning is linked to shorter labour and fewer emergency c-sections ⌘ Read more

Statins don’t cause most of the side effects listed on their labels
A review of the evidence suggests that statins are no more likely than a placebo to cause most of the side effects listed on their labels ⌘ Read more

Five stunning images from the Close-up Photographer of the Year awards
An otherworldly coral, a very cute moth and an intricately beautiful mushroom are among the winners in the prize this year ⌘ Read more

The toxic burden of pesticides is growing all around the world
Pesticides are becoming more toxic and just about every country is using more of them year after year, despite a UN target to halve the overall risk by 2030 ⌘ Read more

Methane surge in 2020 was linked to lower pollution during lockdowns
A change in atmospheric chemistry during the covid pandemic resulted in methane concentrations spiking, raising concerns that cleaning up pollution could have similar knock-on effects in the future ⌘ Read more

Bonobo’s pretend tea party shows capacity for imagination
Kanzi, a bonobo with exceptional language skills, took part in a make-believe tea party that demonstrated cognitive abilities never seen before in non-human primates ⌘ Read more

Fast-charging quantum battery built inside a quantum computer
An experiment with superconducting qubits opens the door to determining whether quantum devices could be less energetically costly if they are powered by quantum batteries ⌘ Read more

Vegan toddlers can grow at the same rate as omnivores
Two-year-olds raised in vegan or vegetarian households don’t necessarily have restricted growth, according to a study of 1.2 million children ⌘ Read more

Psychedelic causes similar brain state in spiritual lama as meditation
The psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT seemed to induce similar patterns of brain activity in a lama - a revered spiritual teacher in Tibetan Buddhism - as meditation, advancing our understanding of the drug’s neurological effects ⌘ Read more

A social network for AI looks disturbing, but it’s not what you think
A social network where humans are banned and AI models talk openly of world domination has led to claims that the “singularity” has begun, but the truth is that much of the content is written by humans ⌘ Read more

Forever chemical TFA has tripled due to ozone-preserving refrigerants
Chemicals used in refrigeration break down in the atmosphere to produce trifluoroacetic acid, a persistent pollutant that could be harmful to humans and aquatic life ⌘ Read more

Dutch air force reads pilots’ brainwaves to make training harder
While pilots are flying in a VR simulation, their brainwave patterns can be fed into an AI model that assesses how challenging they are finding a task and adjusts the difficulty accordingly ⌘ Read more

The weird rules of temperature get even stranger in the quantum realm
Can a single particle have a temperature? It may seem impossible with our standard understanding of temperature, but columnist Jacklin Kwan finds that it’s not exactly ruled out in the quantum realm ⌘ Read more

Nobel laureate says he’ll build world’s most powerful quantum computer
John Martinis has already revolutionised quantum computing twice. Now, he is working on another radical rethink of the technology that could deliver machines with unrivalled capabilities ⌘ Read more

Why did SpaceX just apply to launch 1 million satellites?
SpaceX says it wants to deploy an astronomical number of data centres in orbit to supply power for artificial intelligence, but the proposal might not be entirely serious ⌘ Read more

How to live a meaningful life, according to science
The meaning of life has puzzled philosophers for millennia, but new research suggests it could be as simple as lending a helping hand ⌘ Read more

Ants attack their nest-mates because pollution changes their smell
Ants rely on scent to recognise their comrades, and when they are exposed to common air pollutants, other members of their colony react as if they are enemies ⌘ Read more

A huge cloud of dark matter may be lurking near our solar system
For the first time, researchers have found what seems to be a cloud of dark matter about 60 million times the mass of the sun in our galactic neighbourhood ⌘ Read more

Treating cancer before 3pm could help patients live longer
The most robust evidence to date shows that people with a type of lung cancer lived longer if they received immunotherapy before 3pm ⌘ Read more

The secret signals our organs send to repair tissues and slow ageing
Your organs are constantly talking to each other in ways we’re only beginning to understand. Tapping into these communication networks is opening up radical new ways to boost health ⌘ Read more

Melatonin gummies as sleep aids for children: What are the risks?
To eliminate bedtime struggles, a growing number of parents have turned to melatonin gummies, but these hormone supplements are largely unregulated. Columnist Alice Klein digs into the evidence on the risks of regularly using melatonin as a sleep aid for children ⌘ Read more

CRISPR grapefruit without the bitterness are now in development
Gene-editing citrus fruits to make them less bitter could not only encourage more people to eat them, it might also help save the industry from a devastating plague ⌘ Read more

The best new popular science books of February 2026
Readers are spoiled for choice when it comes to popular science reading this month, with new titles by major names including Maggie Aderin and Michael Pollan ⌘ Read more

Why people can have Alzheimer’s-related brain damage but no symptoms
Some people don’t develop dementia despite showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brain, and we’re starting to understand why ⌘ Read more

Elon Musk is making a big bet on his future vision – will it work?
Reports suggest that Elon Musk is eyeing up a merger involving SpaceX, Tesla and xAI, but what does he hope to achieve by consolidating his business empire? ⌘ Read more

Yawning has an unexpected influence on the fluid inside your brain
Yawning and deep breathing each have different effects on the movement of fluids in the brain, and each of us may have a distinct yawning “signature” ⌘ Read more

The best new science fiction books of February 2026
We pick the sci-fi novels we’re most looking forward to reading this month, from a new Brandon Sanderson to  the latest from Makana Yamamoto ⌘ Read more

How an 1800s vaccine drive beat smallpox in Denmark in just 7 years
In the early 1800s, Denmark’s government, medical community, church leaders and school teachers all united to promote the new smallpox vaccine, which led to a remarkably quick elimination of the disease in the capital ⌘ Read more

Our verdict on Annie Bot: This novel about a sex robot split opinions
Members of the New Scientist Book Club give their take on Sierra Greer’s award-winning science-fiction novel Annie Bot, our read for February – and the needle swings wildly from positive to negative ⌘ Read more

Read an extract from Juice by Tim Winton
In this extract from the February read for the New Scientist Book Club, we meet the protagonist of Tim Winton’s Juice, driving across a scorched landscape in a future version of Australia ⌘ Read more

Tim Winton: ‘Sometimes I think we use the word dystopia as an opiate’
The New Scientist Book Club’s February read is Tim Winton’s novel Juice, set in a future Australia that is so hot it is almost unliveable. Here, the author lays out his reasons for writing it – and why he doesn’t see it as dystopian ⌘ Read more

This doctor is on the hunt for people with first-rate faeces
Elizabeth Hohmann is very interested in faeces, and spends her days sifting through stools to find those that could make the biggest difference to other people’s health ⌘ Read more

AI-assisted mammograms cut risk of developing aggressive breast cancer
Interval cancers are aggressive tumours that grow during the interval after someone has been screened for cancer and before they are screened again, and AI seems to be able to identify them at an early stage ⌘ Read more

Our lifespans may be half down to genes and half to the environment
A reanalysis of twin data from Denmark and Sweden suggests that how long we live now depends roughly equally on the genes we inherit, and on where we live and what we do ⌘ Read more

Polar bears are getting fatter in the fastest-warming place on Earth
Shrinking sea ice has made life harder for polar bears in many parts of the Arctic, but the population in Svalbard seems to be thriving ⌘ Read more

Faecal transplants could boost the effectiveness of cancer treatments
Adults with kidney cancer who received faecal microbiota transplants on top of their existing drugs did better than those who had placebo transplants as their add-on intervention ⌘ Read more

The universe may be hiding a fundamentally unknowable quantum secret
Even given a set of possible quantum states for our cosmos, it’s impossible for us to determine which one of them is correct ⌘ Read more

Think of a card, any card – but make it science
Feedback has been informed about a “global telepathy study” which is currently taking place, but isn’t entirely convinced about its merits ⌘ Read more

Engaging look at friction shows how it keeps our world rubbing along
How much do you know about friction? Jennifer R. Vail’s charming, if sometimes technical, “biography” of the force showcases its amazing and largely overlooked role in everything from climate change to dark matter, says Karmela Padavic-Callaghan ⌘ Read more

This virus infects most of us – but why do only some get very ill?
The ubiquitous Epstein-Barr virus is increasingly being linked to conditions like multiple sclerosis and lupus. But why do only some people who catch it develop these complications? The answer may lie in our genetics ⌘ Read more

Ancient humans were seafaring far earlier than we realised
Thousands of years before the invention of compasses or sails, prehistoric peoples crossed oceans to reach remote lands like Malta and Australia. Doing so meant striking out in unknowable conditions. What do such crossings tell us about ancient minds? ⌘ Read more

Huge fossil bonanza preserves 512-million-year-old ecosystem
A treasure trove of Cambrian fossils has been discovered in southern China, providing a window on marine life shortly after Earth’s first mass extinction event ⌘ Read more

Most complex time crystal yet has been made inside a quantum computer
Using a superconducting quantum computer, physicists created a large and complex version of an odd quantum material that has a repeating structure in time ⌘ Read more

Amazon is getting drier as deforestation shuts down atmospheric rivers
The amount of rainfall in the southern Amazon basin has declined by 8 to 11 per cent since 1980, largely due to the impact of deforestation ⌘ Read more

To halt measles’ resurgence we must fight the plague of misinformation
The measles vaccine has prevented 60 million deaths since 2000. So why are so many children around the world missing out on it? ⌘ Read more

Our brains play a surprising role in recovering from a heart attack
A newly discovered collection of neurons suggests the brain and heart communicate to trigger a neuroimmune response after a heart attack, which may pave the way for new therapies ⌘ Read more

Nobel prizewinner Omar Yaghi says his invention will change the world
Chemist Omar Yaghi invented materials called MOFs, a few grams of which have the surface area of a football field. He explains why he thinks these super-sponges will define the next century ⌘ Read more